Reading Tour Report

As per tradition, here's a photo of the foolishly large pile of books I came back with from my recent book tour. Eighteen in total, up from last year's twelve, though still better than 2011's twenty-four. And technically five of them came with me from Vancouver, with the goal of getting them signed by the authors (a success with Chris Banks, a spectacular "forgotten-in-Hamilton" failure with Roo Borson).

Here they are, with notes on their city of acquisition:

The Essential Richard Outram, ed. Amanda Jernigan (Hamilton)
Cardinal in the Eastern White Cedar, Roo Borson (London)
Descent of Man, TC Boyle (Toronto)
Wherever We Mean to Be, Robyn Sarah (Toronto)
Personal History, Roo Borson (Vancouver)
Rain; road; an open boat, Roo Borson (Vancouver)
Night Walk, Roo Borson (Vancouver)
Short Journey Upriver toward Oishida, Roo Borson (Toronto)
The Cloud Versus Grand Unification Theory, Chris Banks (Vancouver)
Englishing, Dominique Bernier-Cormier (Toronto)
The Celery Forest, Catherine Graham (Toronto)
Her Red Hair Rises with the Wings of Insects, Catherine Graham (Toronto)
Bonfires, Chris Banks (Toronto)
Earth and Heaven: An Anthology of Myth Poetry, ed. Amanda Jernigan (Hamilton)
A Ragged Pen: Essays on Poetry & Memory, ed. Robert Finley (Toronto)
Retreats, Karen Solie (Toronto)
Variations on a Grapple, John Haney and Amanda Jernigan (Hamilton)
Living in the Orchard: the poetry of Peter Sanger, Amanda Jernigan (Hamilton)

I stayed rather disciplined until I arrived at Knife Fork Book in Toronto, and then everything went to hell. What a lovely shop and reading space, and now home (hopefully only temporarily) to a couple copies of The News and "Oh Not So Great".

Knife Fork Book, Toronto

A highlight of the trip was a really wonderful reading in Cobourg with my good friend Liz Ross, who is much-of-the-way pregnant and who had someone approach her after the reading and say "I thought to myself, 'She'd better read first or there's going to be poetry all over the floor!'", which was the grossest and most delightful thing I heard all trip.

Liz Ross, Cobourg

Reading in Toronto with two poets I deeply admire, Chris Banks and Catherine Graham, was another highlight, as was a reading at Redeemer University College in Hamilton, complete with CanLit caricatures on the wall!

Art Bar in Toronto!

Lashing Lenny...

and Little Red Peggy.

After that I forgot to take pictures, but the readings just kept getting better. London and Hamilton were so good to me they made me blush.

Thanks to everyone who came out to my readings, bought books, didn't actively heckle throughout my sets, etc. etc. And to the organizers of the various series' - a deep thank you, and: wow! We don't have our act together out here on the West Coast, not compared to you. It was amazing to see how communities rally around their series' and the touring authors who come through. Something to work toward out here.